We are now only a year away from the 19th FIFA World Cup, which is due to be held in South Africa. As the most viewed sporting event in the world, people's attentions will inevitably be directed towards Africa as a whole -- which hosts the tournament for the very first time. But will the World Cup have a positive effect on the continent overall?

This is the latest question to be posed by the World Economic Forum in their Davos Debates series, ahead of the Forum's Africa Summit in Cape Town next month.

Vote and post your video response to the Davos Debates channel - the most insightful will be shown to political leaders attending the summit, who will also be sharing their reactions.

Today marks an exciting change for the Community Help Forum: We'll be transitioning from the Google Groups platform to a new support platform which we believe will make it even easier for you to find help and share knowledge with one another. In addition to an updated look and feel, the new Help Forum has some useful features geared toward better serving your needs.

So what's new?

* Particularly great answers can now be marked as a "Best Answer,” so users with a similar problem can find the solution quickly and easily.

* The new Help Forum keeps track of user reputation. You can immediately tell which posters are YouTube employees, top contributors, seasoned posters, or new posters. As users make positive contributions to the Forum, their reputation will increase, and so will their capabilities.

* Other benefits of the new Help Forum include the ability for you to link to Help Center content, blogs, websites, YouTube videos, and images in your posts.

What about the content from the old Help Forum?

The content from the Google Help Groups will not disappear, but we are closing the Help Groups from additional new posts. You can post all your questions and answers in the new Google Help Forum. Don't worry -- you'll still be able to search and read previously posted Google Help Groups content through the Help Center.

Definitely stop by the new Help Forum, give us feedback on what you like or don't like, and make yourself at home...

This week two initiatives launched on YouTube with the aim of giving young people a voice in areas normally dominated by national and international decision makers: climate change policy and the BBC’s venerable Question Time.

In December we could see history in the making. World leaders will meet in Copenhagen to discuss issues around climate change and make decisions that may well go on to impact everyone's future. UNICEF believe that it is vital that the voices of children and young people are heard at the Copenhagen Climate meeting, and so, working in tandem with the City of Copenhagen, will be holding a climate forum in the first week of December. Young people from all over the world will come together to have their say – and YouTube users will be among them.

If you're aged between 14-17, UNICEF is offering you the opportunity represent the UK at the conference. To find out more about how you can become a part of the charity’s Big Climate Callout, check out the video below or head over to the UNICEF Tagd channel.

On July 9, a team of eight students will produce this year's edition of BBC Schools Question Time. For the fourth year running a place has been reserved on the panel for a well-informed, articulate young person aged between 18 and 21. The BBC is looking for someone who can be "a formidable opponent to politicians and represent the youth with vigour". Think that sounds like you? If so, click here to find out more. Next stop: the Question Time studio.

In mid-2007, six hours of video were uploaded to YouTube every minute. Then it grew to eight hours per minute, then 10, then 13. In January of this year, it became 15 hours of video uploaded every minute, the equivalent of Hollywood releasing over 86,000 new full-length movies into cinemas each week.

Now, 20 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, and it is a testament to the fact that you've made YouTube your online video home. We couldn't have built this site without your commitment to sharing your thoughts, experiences, and creativity with each other. We have news clips and full-length shows and movies, music videos and how-to content, sports highlights and animation, short films, homegrown videos, and, yes, all the dogs on skateboards you can watch. There's an audience for every type of content on YouTube, and we hope that with all this video, you can find whatever it is you're interested in on the site.

We're still developing new ways to upload videos to YouTube. Today we're launching a feature that allows users to conveniently record a video response immediately after watching a video, making the YouTube experience even more social. When the video you're watching ends, an icon encouraging you to respond will appear in the player. Clicking on the icon will activate your webcam and immediately bring you into the conversation.

So thanks, and let's see if we can get to 24 hours -- a full day's worth of video uploaded every minute.

For today's Music Tuesday, we spotlight the debut recording of singer-songwriter Zee Avi, who, the day before her 22nd birthday, posted a melancholy holiday song on YouTube that she intended to be her last video posting in December 2007.

By the time she checked her email she had almost 3,000 messages, including a slew of label offers. One email came from from Ian Monotone, who had been shown the YouTube clip by Raconteurs' drummer Patrick Keeler, prompting a signing to his label. Avi is now managed by the same team who works with the White Stripes, M.I.A., The Shins and Vampire Weekend, among others. Earlier this year she was flown from her hometown in Malaysia to a recording studio in Los Angeles.

In honor of this talented YouTube's musician's success, today we present an exclusive acoustic mini-concert of songs from Avi's debut CD; the video for her single "Bitter Heart"; and an early song that wasn't titled in 2007 but has since made its way to her new release. We've also got a video blog from Zee Avi herself explaining how uploading her original music to YouTube has landed her a tour of the U.S. after only playing local gigs in Kuala Lumpur.

Have questions for Zee? She has answered a few of them already on her YouTube channel here, including "Are you a lefty?" and her less-than-tech-savvy response.

Have you ever wondered how to build an audience on YouTube and then turn that following into a powerful business? Well, Michael Buckley, writer, producer and star of entertainment news show "What the Buck?," has done just that. (Read all about him in the New York Times.)

Now he's offered to share the secrets of his success with you.

To ask Buckley a question, or to vote on questions submitted so far, click on this link. You'll have until Monday, May 18, 10am PT, to have your say. Then, in a couple of weeks, we'll post a video to this blog with his answers to the most popular questions. We hope you'll take advantage of this unique opportunity to learn from one of YouTube's foremost user-experts.

Starting today, signing up for YouTube means signing up for a Google Account that gives you access to YouTube, as well as other Google services such as iGoogle, Reader and Docs. If you already have a Google Account, you can choose to link your new YouTube Account to it, which means one less password to remember.

You can still sign up for YouTube with any email address and you'll still need to confirm whatever email address you enter. You'll also still pick a unique YouTube username that identifies you to the YouTube community.

So why are we doing this? We feel that by jointly connecting accounts, you can take greater advantage of our services both on YouTube and on Google, especially as we start to roll out new features in the future that will be powered by Google technology.

For those of you who already have a YouTube Account, don't worry, you'll still be able to enjoy YouTube with just a YouTube Account. But some of the new features we roll out down the road may require a Google Account. In these cases, we'll be there to help you link your YouTube Account to a Google Account if you want to check the features out.

Creating YouTube videos with your phone is simpler and faster than ever before. If you have a camera phone with video capture, post your video by sending an email or MMS to your unique YouTube email address (more details at www.youtube.com/mobile). And with the Android 1.5 release, it's even easier to create YouTube videos on Android-powered phones -- you can send them straight to your YouTube account by tapping the 'share' button and selecting YouTube. With the Android YouTube application you can also view your favorites and playlists, access your subscriptions, and share videos.

Sharing videos on YouTube is just one of many new features on Android 1.5. Check out our video to learn more:

At the launch of its inaugural national five-a-side football competition, Show Your Five, Nike invited YouTube users to enter a team and embark on a winning run to the national finals. As the competition progressed, the NikeFootball channel showcased the best edits of the action as put together by team-members and football fans from across the YouTube community. And now, after three months of intense competition, the Grand Final is just a week away – and will be shown here on YouTube UK from 9.30pm on Sunday, May 10.

Today on the YouTube UK homepage we are reviewing some the action to date, which has come out of regional deciders in Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow, Liverpool and North and South London. Together with an official round-up from Nike and two great mash-ups from HolyestGrail and the charmingly named Catpuke, there is a 10-minute look at the North London finals in Barnet – complete with a few words from Theo Walcott – presented by UK user Smivadee. With camerawork from JDM525 and a bespoke soundtrack from NSGMusic, it’s fair to say that this represents a new breed of YouTube collaboration, so congratulations to all concerned.

As you can see, some of the skills on show at Show Your Five are not to be sniffed at, so if you want to see more and be among the first to see the champions crowned, head for the UK hompage on Sunday, May 10, at 9.30pm. Who do you think is going to prevail?

At the launch of its inaugural national five-a-side football competition, Show Your Five, Nike invited YouTube users to enter a team and embark on a winning run to the national finals. As the competition progressed, the NikeFootball channel showcased the best edits of the action as put together by team-members and football fans from across the YouTube community. And now, after three months of intense competition, the Grand Final is just a week away – and will be shown here on YouTube UK from 9.30pm on Sunday, May 10.

Today on the YouTube UK homepage we are reviewing some the action to date, which has come out of regional deciders in Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow, Liverpool and North and South London. Together with an official round-up from Nike and two great mash-ups from HolyestGrail and the charmingly named Catpuke, there is a 10-minute look at the North London finals in Barnet – complete with a few words from Theo Walcott – presented by UK user Smivadee. With camerawork from JDM525 and a bespoke soundtrack from NSGMusic, it’s fair to say that this represents a new breed of YouTube collaboration, so congratulations to all concerned.

As you can see, some of the skills on show at Show Your Five are not to be sniffed at, so if you want to see more and be among the first to witness the champions crowned, head for the UK homepage on Sunday, May 10, at 9.30pm. Who do you think is going to prevail?